GERMAN LEGION: MONOCHROME WARRIORS OF THE HUNGARIAN REVOLT

Another new addition: this time it's the German Legion of the Hungarian Revolution, an exercise in gray tones. These fellows were not uncharacteristic of any number of volunteers of the era. Earlier, I created a more colorful set of general purpose German volunteers, inspired by a similar volunteer uniform from the Schlewsig Holstein affair. In this case, I wanted to adhere to an actual documented historical uniform. Depending on the source, the color of the German Legion's uniform runs from more black to more gray (I believe that the sharpshooter company of this unit was actually in black). I went with dark gray uniforms and black hats. As usual, clix pix for BIG PIX... 

Here is an illustration of the unit from the excellent The Hungarian Army 1848-1849 by Ralph Weaver (Partisan Press, distributed by Caliver Books).

           
To represent the unit, I went with the Perry ACW Iron Brigade figures:

I turned up the hat brims on the few that didn't already have them turned up and I fabricated a feather out of lead foil, reinforced by liquid weld. I drybrushed the black hat with a bit of gray to give it texture.  I went with the gray feather as in the illustration. The results:

The cap badge wound up being a bit more impressionistic than I had hoped (the gap between what we aim for vs what we achieve being apparent), but at gaming distance it evokes the death's head better than in pictures. The shading strokes are a bit more abrupt in the photographs than with the naked eye. Another one of those effects that doesn't draw attention to itself (I hope).  Not the most colorful unit, but a distinctive one--and what black powder era gaming table isn't spruced up by a unit of Germans in dark garb wearing a totenkopf badge? I can see these fellows being referred to as the "black hats" in play.